Which is a kind of strange/somewhat dickish move by Aaron. "Hey we don't want to give this game out early to anyone since it's shit, so let's give it to the game grumps, who have consistently said most things Sonic are shit. But hey he ate cupcakes so fuck it." Ironically though the game grumps seem to enjoy the game. I mean I do too, but surprised they liked it. Hell Arin was meh at best with Mania.
Did Aaron take the game grumps out to a Godfather 1 like dinner, in a restaurant at an undisclosed location with armed guards and tell them they must play Forces and say nice things about it? I mean...I sort of halfway, in my silliest of thoughts, think this. I mean, clearly I'm joking and don't really believe that happened but I could totally see it. (And now I need to watch the first two movies again over the holidays.) But in seriousness, Aaron really goes out of his way for them because they have a large following. Shouldn't surprise anyone. Its a common sense, corporate strategy I think. It does come off as desperate though. At no point in Force's life cycle have I believed SEGA's had much confidence in the game. I really think SEGA/Sonic Team in general spends far too much time polishing turds and trying to sell them as gold nuggets. And ah, ok, I realize I'm suggesting that Forces is a turd. Its not a turd, ok? "Its not terrible but not great", blah blah, yadda yadda. *deep sigh*
Ya but if you want someone with a large following to make your game look good why would you pick someone who shits on Sonic 99.9% of the time? The fact that they don't hate this game is an unexpected turn of events.
Maybe because he was aware of its short runtime and easy gameplay? Itd make alright LP material in that sense, thats my guess, really But, I think it's fine he gave the Grumps a copy, its smart advertising, but the fact the actual honest reviews weren't allowed for anyone else until it was too late is a bit of shit thing to do. Although Id believe that SEGA didnt want the reviews out but Aaron could still manage to slip them a PS4
Could it be Aaron didn't know about the "no review copies" being sent thing and merely sent the grumps a key on his usual "why the fuck not?" way of doing things? Still wonder if that Q & A with Sonic, Shadow, and Eggman was cleared with Sega.
For what it's worth, Sonic's review copies are handled by a 3rd party external to SEGA of America. I received a code for Mania and had no interaction with Aaron in that process. I'm guessing he just had a copy through whatever means and passed it along. As for the Q&A thing, SEGA absolutely knows since resources are spent on generating that content. There was a picture posted during the most recent one with an entire crew on hand keeping things going. Then consider the costs of flying the actors in, renting the studio space, etc.
You know, I started picking up on that sentiment, after the trailer that first debuted the returning villains and Infinite. The trailers didn't really feature much actual content after awhile. And then when we were finally shown our first hints at the gameplay... That was another clue. They didn't really seem to hype this game as much as you would think a game that bills itself as "From the developers of Sonic Generations" which was shown in the first teaser. And then the price. When they revealed the SRP and the pre-order bonuses, I knew something was off. I was like, "Oooooh boy...That's the price of a budget title. Why the hell would they make this long awaited game of 4 years.. A budget title? Does that mean..." The time-limited demo didn't help things either. At first I disabused myself of any such concerns or worries, but alas... I will at least thank Sega for not being as presumptuous to think this game would be worth 60 dollars. They at least have enough sense and decency to not try and outright rip off their consumerbase.
Don't forget that the game was announced at the 25th birthday party with only a CG trailer and a working title, despite being in development for nearly three years at that point. And it took eight months (July 2016 - March 2017) until they revealed the name and some actual gameplay footage....which was only 30 seconds of modern Sonic running down Park Avenue. And the Green Hill/Park Avenue levels were the only zones from the game Sega showed for most of the game's pre-release period. By the time a new zone for Forces was revealed --Casino Forest-- it was October, a month before the game's release. :v
Also in regards to the name, there's the fact that the game was called Sonic Wars internally for the longest time, and then Forces early this year presumably when they finally turned in a marketing concept. We already know much of the game was actually designed in pretty much just over a year, so it all lines up almost frighteningly.
Generally speaking, it's not uncommon for the name to be a fairly last minute decision just before the game is announced. Back in 2008, a few listings on retailers popped up for "Sonic World Adventure" after Unleashed had been officially announced. SEGA clarified that it was a working title that had only been kept as the final title in Japan. It's incredibly obvious what a short development Forces had though, but I wouldn't say it was rushed. There's not a sign of lots of cut content or it being unpolished. SEGA set out to make a a small game quickly and cheaply, and that's exactly what Forces is. That's why it recycles so much from Generations and makes minimal effort to improve anything. And it's also why the level design is so straight forward, automated, flat/made through white boxing.
Don't know if it's been mentioned before, but I played some classic Sonic levels (in Sonic Forces) this week and after a while I decided to play Sonic Mania. I choose Hydrocity Zone and started playing. Then it occurred to me, Sonic Forces does have Sonic Mania's physics, but Sonic Team picked the wrong physics, the underwater physics! Classic Sonic in Sonic Forces does have al lot of weight when jumping and gaining speed/momentum just like in Sonic Mania when Sonic is underwater. It's not completely the same physics of course, but I thought it was funny to share.
But there are! No boss fights against Chaos or Shadow, Null Space was butchered entirely, the lack of resolution for Infinite, you never actually fight one of those new generic Death Egg Robots. I'm sure I'm missing other details. I'd say squeezing so much development in a year IS rushing the game. They just did a better job at rushing it than they ever did before.
I'd say Null Space and Infinite Boss 3 are the two biggest signs that compromises had to be made due to time constraints. Everything else may have been penned that way from early days, but I don't want to live in a world where Sonic Team would willingly want Zavok to be a boss fight over the more popular Shadow or Chaos. So I like to assume they were all going to be bosses at one point. The final boss simply being the 'Nega Wisp Armor - Shiny Pokémon Edition' feels like it may have been a time saving move as well but I can only speculate that one.
I recently watched ShayMay's blind stream and he bought up a few things that has me thinking that 'Sonic Boom' Sonic might have been the third character at some point. Here's why: The character proportions for the avatar fit 'Sonic Boom' Sonic very closely. Long, slender body and shape of the hedgehog's head. You can unlock all of the 'Sonic Boom' Sonic equipment: Bandaged arms, bandaged shoes, neckerchief, etc. The wire attack acting just like the electric whip tool. The similarities of the Death Egg Robot (Phase 1 and 2) to a giant Lyric robot. When this was pointed out, I couldn't un-see it. There might be more, but these points are already more than I expected to find. What do you guys think?
I totally think Boom sonic was in. It makes total sense to have them making a double boost and on the end too where all three of them make a triple boost.
Probably, especially with thoae 25th advertisements with all 3 Sonics. I dunno, after watching a few of the Boom episodes, I think I would've been fine with Boom Sonic, if only to be a more humorous contrast to the tone, but it feels almost like that humor was haphazardly stuffed into the other characters. But then again, Pontac and Graff havent been shown to actually be capable of making humor.
I dunno, I really like their other works. I don't understand why the plot they write for Sonic games are away consistently awful.
PlayStation Store Top Downloads for November was posted today. Forces is nowhere to be seen in both the US charts and the EU charts for Top PS4 downloads. The US and Brazil lists for Top PS3 downloads did have Sonic Adventure show up though! For reference, Mania charted at #3 in the US and #8 in the EU back when it released in August. Someone did find remnants of what was supposed to be a Null Space level dummied out of the game; but unless I missed something, there isn't any data pointing to scrapped boss fights against Chaos, Shadow, or the Death Egg Robots. I also don't necessarily see how Infinite lacking resolution (don't really understand what you're trying to say here) indicates cut content either. We could speculate that such things were planned but cut due to restraints, but without tangible leftovers in the game that provide evidence to the idea, we don't really know for sure. This also applies in regards to the game's development time. Forces may have been under full production for only one year, but the game is technically sound and doesn't really have any glaring evidence of in-game reference/acknowledgement of materials that aren't accessible by normal means or simply don't exist in the game at all.
Why they didn't just give one of the infinite boss fights to Shadow and one to Chaos I'll never know. Wasted potential.
